Gallery: Costa Rican Forests - Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG)

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Costa Rican Forests - Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG)

Costa Rican Forests (Area de Conservacion Guanacaste)

The ACG (www.acguanacaste.ac.cr /), is a 163,000 hectare national park in northwestern Costa Rica, extending from 6 km out in the Pacific up to 2000 m at the top Volcan Rincon de la Vieja and down into the Atlantic lowland rain forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ACG is home to more than 325,000 species of plants and animals (2.6% of the world's biodiversity) and has grown dramatically from a 10K acre national park (formalised in 1971) to a global example of tropical biodiversity conservation, dependent upon, and inserted within, the development and economy of the local people. If you are interested in more information on the ACG, please visit the Guanacaste Dry Forest Fund website (www.gdfcf.org /). At the bottom of that page you'll find a button to donate to the ACG. "Every penny donated to GDFCF goes to forest purchase to expand ACG" - a very worthwhile investment!

I am a molecular ecologist, based at the University of Guelph in Ontario Canada, and interested in tracking how ACG ant communities change here with elevation, temperature and time. I have been following this across three volcanoes in Guanacaste Province (Cacao, Rincon de la Vieja and Orosi) since 2008. My hope and intent is to continue this monitoring for the long term - using the GigaPan to document habitat in high resolution.

101127 - Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Costa Rica, Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, Estacion Pailas 1460m
1 3/4 - 2 hr hike up. At 10:20 the traps are open and baits are down. No rain on ascent, but rains started from 10-1:00, 1:30-2:30. Traps were fine, but bait and sifting leaf litter were very difficult....

130328 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Cacao, 1200m
Cacao1200 10.9279 -85.46601 1186m
Another wet, windy, rainy start to the day, that dried up by 11am. It remained windy all day. Many Collembola too, not so many spiders. Videos of Stenamma, Collembola (youtu.be/4uPj4PEeHj ...

131001 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Cacao, 1,300m
Cacao 1300 10.9303 -85.46162 1310 Total time working today was abbreviated after the Prado went off the Cacao road. On ground from 11 - 2:41. GigaPan condensed by 15th column. Many Gnaptogenys here.
Explore the panorama using th...

101125 - Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Costa Rica, Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, Estacion Pailas 1100m
VERY wet day. Rained on an off - occasionally quite hard all day. The GigaPan was very hard - probably the most heavily curated I've taken - but in the end there was too much moisture and condensation wi...

120217 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion (ACG), Rincon de la Vieja, 1,400 m
The rise from Pailas to the end of the forest is very gradual and it was a long hike up from 7:40-9:10. The traps are out from 9:30-2:30. There were many of the shiny black Pheidole here - and a pretty cool Geometridae caterpillar. It ne...

131002 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Naranjo, 10 m
Naranjo 0010 10.77911 -85.66203 10 A hot, humid and windless day at Naranjo. No rain while working, but the sky's opened at 1:30 and didn't stop for hours. River crossing was dicey. Labidus here. Many Ectatomma and Pheidole (fallax?)
...

130327 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Cacao, 1500m
Cacao 1500 10.93288 - 85.45745 1470m
A very wet and windy start to the day, then windy and dry afterwards. In the afternoon, I could smell fires down below. Many spiders in all search methods. Traps out at 9, in at 2:45. The Gi...

130323 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, 1,430m
Rincon 1462 10.81442 -85.34773 1430 A surprisingly dry day at 1430m. The rain started at 110pm. Traps out between 10:24 and 2-m - long hike up. GigaPan 22x42 had loads of condensation in 2nd half. Videos of Strumigen...

120219 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion (ACG), Playa Naranjo, 26 m
Drove down to Naranjo from 6:40-7:10. Road is in quite good condition and dry. Traps out at 8am after figuring out exactly where the Malaise trap is. Very little wind and super hot - 38-40C in the shade. You can hear the waves on the beach and...